Madeleine McCann's parents are trying to protect their twins, 12, from online abuse

'I'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES' Kate McCann reveals she plans to buy missing Maddie a present for her 14th birthday in only interview to mark 10th anniversary of disappearance.

The defiant couple have poured their hearts out as they admitted they should've been a 'family of five' for all this time.

The parents of Madeleine McCann have spoken of the hurt caused by fake news and how they are now trying to protect their 12-year-old twins from online abuse.

In a moving interview to mark the tenth anniversary of the disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann also tell of a new normality of adjusting to life after so long without their eldest child.

Defiant Kate McCann has said her hope of finding missing daughter Madeleine alive will never fade – as she vowed to still buy her a present for her 14th birthday.

The brave mum has poured her heart out in an interview to mark the agonising ten-year anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in Praia da Luz in Portugal.

Heartbroken Kate revealed she still buys birthday and Christmas presents for Maddie, which she keeps in her pink bedroom in the hope her daughter will one day be back to open them.

And she admitted she is going to buy Maddie a present for her 14th birthday on May 12.

She said: “I think about what age she is and that, whenever we find her, will it still be appropriate so there’s a lot of thought goes into it.

"She's still our daughter, she'll always be our daughter.”

Although the former GP has moved on in her career to another area of medicine and has devoted her time to raising 12-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, she said the "trauma and upset" never fades.

She explained: "My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago.”

Kate, 49, added: “We never thought we’d be in this situation so far along the line.”

The heartbroken mum refers to the milestone date on Wednesday as “a horrible marker of stolen time” because we “should have been a family of five for all that time".

Husband Gerry, 48, a renowned heart doctor, said it was “devastating” not to have found his daughter, who would now be aged 13, after she vanished from a holiday apartment in May 2007.

The couple were dining with pals at the time in a nearby tapas restaurant.

Gerry said: “We really threw ourselves into trying to do everything we could to help find her.

“It looks like that hasn't worked yet.”

But he insisted: “We’re still looking forward, I think that's the most important thing, we still hope.”

Kate said the family kept a busy life as a way of a coping mechanism and admitted: “Sometimes it's almost a little bit too frenetic but it keeps us going.”

In a BBC TV interview with Fiona Bruce to be screened today, the mum added: “People say you don't realise how strong you are until you have no option and I think that's very true.

“Some of that is subconscious I think.

"Your mind and body just take over to a certain extent.

“But if you can't change something immediately you have to go with it and do the best that you can.”

Gerry told how life over the past five years had taken on “a new normality really”, and said that since the Met Police came on board six years ago it has “taken a huge pressure off us, individually and as a family.”

“And I think every parent could understand that what you want and what we have aspired to is to have all the reasonable lines of enquiry followed to a logical conclusion.”

The Met Police said this week they are still pursuing “critical” leads to trace her kidnappers - but admitted they have no evidence as to whether she is alive or dead.

The controversial inquiry into Maddie's disappearance, Operation Grange, has cost taxpayers nearly £12million since it was launched in 2011.

But Kate has defended the probe, saying: “It might not be as quick as we want but there's real progress being made and I think we need to take heart from that.

“We just have to go with the process and follow it through, whatever it takes for as long as it takes.

“There is still hope that we can find Madeleine.”

Gerry is also quick to defend the inquiry, which has recently been given a £85,000 boost, against those who believe it is a waste of money.

He said: "I think some of that criticism is really quite unfair because I know it's a single missing child but there are millions of British tourists that go to the Algarve, year-on-year, and essentially you've got a British subject who was the subject of a crime."

Over the past ten years, Kate and Gerry have been dealt devastating blows with false information and sightings.

The year Maddie vanished, a plane was placed on standby to pick the then three-year-old up after a girl was found in Morocco.

It was just one of many times the couple had their hopes raised, only to be dashed at the last minute.

During the last ten years, the couple have found themselves under public scrutiny and finger-pointing over their daughter's mysterious disappearance.

One controversial figure has been former top Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral, who was booted off the bungled Maddie inquiry after criticising the Met and Leicestershire police.

The outspoken ex-cop, who has since retired, has made a series of outlandish claims - including that Kate and Gerry killed their daughter and MI5 hid the body.

But the couple have announced they will continue their libel battle against Amaral, whose “malicious and false” accusations they believe are hampering the search for their daughter.

They now intend to go to the highest court in the land, The European Court of Human Rights, to challenge a ruling which cleared Amaral from breaching libel laws in his 2008 book The Truth of the Lie.

Kate said the battle must continue, adding: “I find it all incomprehensible to be honest.

“It has been very upsetting, and it has caused a lot of frustration and anger which is a real negative emotion.”

Maddie’s parents admit they have been shocked by hurtful online abuse and urged the public to think twice “in this era of fake news” about posting cruel remarks for the sake of the twins who use social media.

Gerry said: “We have told them that people are writing things that are simply just untrue and they need to be aware of that.”

He added: “I think we've seen the worst and the best of human nature.”

His wife said that whilst some jibes were shocking she tries to focus on “the goodness of people and the fantastic support that we have had over 10 years, which hasn't wavered in all that time.”

And she delivered a heartfelt message to the family's supporters and well-wishers who have stuck by them over the years: "Please be reassured that there is progress being made.

“There are some very credible lines of enquiry that the police are working on.”

Gerry added: “No parent is going to give up on their child, unless they know for certain their child is dead, and we just don't have any evidence.”

Kate is ambassador for the charity Missing People which Maddie’s high profile disappearance has helped promote.

She told how she sometimes envisaged being reunited with her daughter, saying: “I try not to go there too often, to be honest it's one of those real bitter-sweet kind of thoughts.